American Dream Lost: Financial Crisis Created Massive Shift Of Homeowners To Renters

Have we become a nation of renters as a result of the Financial Crisis?

“The rent is too damn high,” and more of us are being forced to pay it.

The financial crisis of 2008 created the biggest disruption to the U.S. housing market since the Great Depression, according to the American Community Survey. The years between 2006 and 2016 saw the biggest shift from homeowner to renter by age, gender, race, and income in the 50 largest U.S metros.

Older Millennials, aged between 26 and 34, found themselves unable to transition from renters to homeowners at significant rates, according to a Trulia.com study.

African-Americans saw a 5 percent increase in the number of homeowners to renters, from 56 percent to 61 percent from 2006 to 2014, and spent 34.6 percent of their income on rent in the final year of Trulia’s survey.

Alternatively, Whites also saw a 5 percent increase in the number of renters to homeowners, though their over all renter rates were significantly different, increasing from 29.5 percent to 34.4 percent. Caucasians spent 29.1 percent of their income on rent in the final year of Trulia’s survey.

African-American males saw the second biggest jump behind Hispanic males from homeownership to renting between 2006 and 2014. Renting among Black males increased from 32.2 percent to 59.4 percent. Black women experienced the third biggest shift, from 32.5 percent to 53.3 percent.

More significantly, the Pew Research Center found that 53 percent of African-American wealth was wiped out as a result of the Great Recession and disruption in the housing market.

Have we become a nation of renters? Not yet, but the “American Dream” of homeownership is becoming increasingly elusive for African-Americans who are spending a significant amount of their income on rent.